“Thanks.” Tara wiped her eyes and laughed uncomfortably. “I also came to tell you that Gelryn arrived back from the Holy Mountain. He said he had to eat, and then you should visit him.”
Kerrigan’s eyes rounded. “Scales! I should go!”
Tara laughed. “Yes. Maybe change first though.”
Kerrigan laughed at the fact that she was still in tournament clothes. She had passed out immediately as soon as her head hit the ground and hadn’t even had time to change or bathe. She needed to do both.
She thanked Tara one more time before she left, and then Kerrigan grabbed new clothes, went for a quick bath to scrub the tournament off her skin, and then went in search of Gelryn. She found him in the same eaves with the impossible climb as she’d had that night she came in search of him about her visions. Her legs burned by the time she made it up to the top, and she nearly collapsed at his feet.
Kerrigan Argon, now of the House of Shadows, a full Society member, welcome.
Kerrigan bowed dramatically. “A fancy title for the same person.”
Perhaps. Do you feel the same?
“I don’t know. I feel rested, and that’s different.”
Gelryn laughed a booming thing that filled the cave. You entertain me. Such a rare quality.
“I am so glad to see you return. I was worried that they weren’t going to let me into the Society without your testimony that I had been tested.”
This is your destiny, and no one can deny it to you.
“Well, Lorian sure thinks he can.”
Master Lorian cannot always see what is right in front of him. He has had a clouded past and a fraught history with your father.
“Do you… think he knows Kivrin is my father?” Kerrigan shivered at the thought. She had been trying to ignore the binding dream that she’d had of her father. It made no sense, and she worried that asking about it to anyone, especially Gelryn, would reveal that she hadn’t bonded with Tieran.
Assuredly. Your secret is no longer a secret.
Kerrigan froze. “What?”
How long did you sleep, child?
“All day,” she confessed.
Audria Ather in the House of Drame has proclaimed you the lost princess of Bryonica. You have made waves in their community. I believe that you will be celebrated among them for generations.
Kerrigan thought she was going to be sick. “She told everyone?”
It appears so. You will have to make peace with your past if you hope to continue into this future.
“What does that even mean, Gelryn?”
It means that I discovered answers for you in the Holy Mountain.
Kerrigan froze. “You did? You found out about my visions?”
I spoke with the ancients of my race, the dragons who came before even me, who preserve our history. They told me of others in the past who had access to mystical visions and great spiritual energy. They were called spiritcasters.
“Spiritcasters,” she whispered. It felt incredible to finally have a name for what she could do. “Are there any now? Can I meet them?”
No, the last spiritcaster was from nearly a thousand years ago during the Great War.
“What happened to them?” she whispered.
They never found a way to master their casting, and they slowly went insane.
Kerrigan shivered at the words. Gods! “That could happen to me?”
Yes, if you do not learn to control the castings, then they will control you. Already, I believe it is happening with the increased rate of the spiritual energy swirling through you. You must find a teacher to help you learn to spiritcast.
“How can I possibly do that if no other spiritcasters exist? If there hasn’t been one in a thousand years.”
We will discover that together, you and me, child.
Kerrigan swallowed and nodded. “All right.”
You will dedicate the next year of your life to Society training, but through that training, you must also dedicate yourself to your spiritcasting. You will never survive one without the other.
Kerrigan bowed again. “I will do so. Thank you, Gelryn. You have helped more than I could have possibly hoped for.”
Gelryn blew a puff of air in her face. Go now. There is someone waiting for you below.
“There is?”
Gelryn just turned away from her and folded himself up to sleep. Kerrigan sighed and then headed back down the endless stairs. She didn’t know who was waiting for her, but she couldn’t get over the giddy feeling of knowing that she was a spiritcaster. Not just a strange girl who needed to hide her abilities, but she was also from a line of great workers. The first in a thousand years.
When she stepped off the last stair, Fordham turned to face her. He looked every inch the prince she had first seen him as. Tall and broad with the soft black silk and thick silver embroidering. The silver House of Shadows seal on his breast. But now, she saw so much more than that. Not just the pampered prince, but also her friend. The man who had stood by her side through everything, who had kissed her after a night of poetry, who had told her he was cursed and that they could never be together.
Her heart panged at the sight of him. They had walked the path together through the tournament and come out on the other side. But they couldn’t walk this path, the one she actually wanted. He might have gone out on a limb for her to have her join the House of Shadows, but it didn’t change anything between them. And she could see that in his swirling gray eyes, the same color as that insufferable orb.
“I heard Gelryn was back and thought I might find you here,” Fordham said, his hands slipping into the pockets of his pants.
“Are you going to chide me for not going on my morning run?” she joked. She fell into step beside him as they walked away from the dark depths and into the main opening to look out over the city of Kinkadia.
“You needed the sleep.”
“Not even going to volley with me. This must be
